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Connecticut (/kəˈnɛtɪkət/ kə-NET-ik-ət) is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital is Hartford, and its most populous city is Bridgeport. Connecticut lies between the major hubs of New York City and Boston along the Northeast Corridor. The New York metropolitan area, which includes six of Connecticut's seven largest cities, extends well into the southwestern part of the state, while the northeastern corner reaches Greater Boston. Connecticut is the third-smallest state by area after Rhode Island and Delaware, and the 29th most populous with slightly more than 3.6 million residents as of 2020, ranking it fourth among the most densely populated U.S. states.

The state is named after the Connecticut River, the longest in New England which roughly bisects the state and drains into the Long Island Sound between the towns of Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. The name of the river is in turn derived from anglicized spellings of Quinnetuket, a Mohegan-Pequot word for "long tidal river". Before the arrival of the first European settlers, the region was inhabited by various Algonquian tribes. In 1633, the Dutch West India Company established a small, short-lived settlement called House of Hope in Hartford. Half of Connecticut was initially claimed by the Dutch colony New Netherland, which included much of the land between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers, although the first major settlements were established by the English around the same time. Thomas Hooker led a band of followers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to form the Connecticut Colony, while other settlers from Massachusetts founded the Saybrook Colony and the New Haven Colony; both merged into the former by 1664.

Connecticut's official nickname, the "Constitution State", refers to the Fundamental Orders adopted by the Connecticut Colony in 1639, which is considered by some to be the first written constitution in Western history. As one of the Thirteen Colonies that rejected British rule during the American Revolution, Connecticut was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States. In 1787, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, state delegates to the Constitutional Convention, proposed a compromise between the Virginia and New Jersey Plans; its bicameral structure for Congress, with a respectively proportional and equal representation of the states in the House of Representatives and Senate, was adopted and remains to this day. In January 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the Constitution. (Full article...)

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The House at 130 Mohegan Avenue, also known as the House of Steel or Steel House, is a prefabricated, modular, International Style house in New London, Connecticut, United States. The House was designed by Howard T. Fisher, who founded General Houses, Inc. in 1932. Winslow Ames, a professor of art history at Connecticut College and the art director of the Lyman Allyn Museum, had the home built after attending the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. The House is a single story 21 feet (6.4 m) by 37 feet (11 m) rectangular steel prefabricated home that rests upon a concrete slab. It originally had a flat roof and included an attached garage. Throughout the years, the house has undergone significant alteration, including the addition of a gable roof.

The house was used by Ames, and later by Connecticut College, as a rental property, until the structure was slated for demolition in 2004. The push to restore the house is credited to Doug Royalty, who worked with the college's Abigail Van Slyck. Completed in 2013, restoration cost $500,000 and involved several phases, including the dismantling, transportation, and reassembly of the house. The house was added to the Connecticut Historic Register in July 2007 and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 2009. (Full article...)
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State facts

  • Total area: 5,543 mi2
    • Land: 4,845 mi2
    • Water: 698 mi2
  • Highest elevation: 2,379 ft (Mount Frissell)
  • Population 3,576,452 (2015 est)
  • Admission to the Union: January 9, 1788 (5th)

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Mountain from southwest

Brace Mountain is the peak of a ridge in the southern Taconic Mountains, near the tripoint of the U.S. states of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Its 2,311-foot (704 m) main summit is located in New York; it is the highest point in that state's Dutchess County.

The New York and Massachusetts portions of the mountain are within protected areas; Taconic State Park and Mount Washington State Forest respectively. The Connecticut portions are privately owned and conserved. (Full article...)
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